I Can See Russia From My House

Change. Ok. We need that, right? Isn’t that what we always needed? It would be great to have the first black president, as well as if it were the first woman president. It would also be great if these people won a spot in the V.P. office in the White House, but there is one qualification that America is forgetting. These people need to be smart. America is being Palinized. You know, where all the hockey moms and soccer moms think that Sarah Palin would be a great fit in the White House, and politicians such as McCain take beauty over brains because it might gain him votes. Well it looks like that is back firing, and I can give you plenty of reasons why this Palin choice of his was a bad idea, so the rest of us don’t get Palinized.  Following are just a small portion of reasons Palin should not be in office, just a few things that ignited my thoughts.

This woman has no experience. Perhaps her biggest accomplishment was funding a sports complex that was actually built on someone else’s land. It doesn’t take a politician to tell you that is illegal. In order to build this complex she raised the sales taxes to pay for its construction. She didn’t follow the law, she had personal interest in the sports complex so her kids can play hockey, and she frankly didn’t care about anyone but herself and the few that used the sports complex by taking money out of everybody’s pocket.

Here is a good one for you Mr. Republican. I know how you like to hold your head high and watch the little ones gather their food below you while you collect your checks of six to seven digits, and I know how you are proud of your hoity toity ways. Guess what? Palin smoked marijuana when it was legal under Alaskan law, according to the goddess herself in 2006. I know deny it, deny it, deny it. I mean, I don’t think it’s a big deal, her brain capacity is a bigger deal to me, but I know how you are Mr. Republican. If that were a democrat, you would write a book about the lack luster ways of the Democrats while you held the hand of Mr. GOP. Look it up, its true.

Let me take you back to the early 1900’s where equal rights was a non-factor. No one liked gay people, and gay people couldn’t come out of the closet at the expense of getting ridiculed and pushed out of the circle of society. Over time, people began to realize if it makes them happy then I guess it is ok, it isn’t affecting me, and it is a free country. So now it’s 2008, and we might have a black president, a woman senator was runner up in the primaries and a woman was chosen as the GOP’s Vice Presidential candidate. These things all became possible because of Civil Rights. Palin, wake the hell up and look at the opportunity you were given. How the hell does she have the nerve to be a non-supporter of anything but traditional marriage, denies benefits to homosexuals, allows no spousal benefits for same-sex couples, and has the nerve to say in July of 2006 that one of her top priorities include preserving the definition of “marriage.” Isn’t this against the Constitution where it says that Church and State are separate entities, and doesn’t it also defeat the purpose of this being a FREE country to do what you want. So if Adam and Steve get married next to Adam and Eve, rather then just letting Adam and Eve get married, is your life really going to be hurt. Is God going to come down and strike you with a lighting bolt? This is not 1900, in fact if it was, you would be cooking in the kitchen with no job -Ms. Palin, so if you want equal rights, then quit denying them to other citizens that are part of the same seed and country you are.

What we, as Americans, need to realize is that the role of the Vice President has become more strenuous as the workload of the President increases. By the letter of the constitution, the Vice President of the U.S. has the sole duty of serving as President of the U.S. Senate. On top of that, it has been increasingly popular to be involved with technology and energy thanks to the services of Al Gore, and take on free trade and foreign policy as well, much like Dick Cheney has been known to contribute. Imagine Palin holding a simple cabinet meeting. I bet you just laughed, much like every body in the capitol building trying to take her seriously. So does Palin even understand the role of the Vice President. When asked about what she thinks about Dick Cheney’s interpretation of the duties as V.P., she didn’t directly answer. She responded by explaining that the Constitution gives great flexibility to the V.P. but she would like to have more power.

The plan McCain has for her is to oversee the energy policy (which is one of her strengths), government reform and to handle the programs for families with children with special needs. Sorry honey, even your boss thinks it is a bad idea to have you take on more responsibilities then that. Cheney has much more control over what goes on in the White House. He has a strong say over the war in Iraq and how the Americans treat terrorist, domestic surveillance, and a more recent phenomenon for the V.P., handle energy policy as well as environmental agendas. The majority of his jobs entail some of the most important things going on in our country, probably because the President is oblivious to what any of it means. Could Palin really take on all these powers?

“I have a freezer full of wild game” said Palin in August of 2008 shortly after her nomination as McCain’s running mate. Ok, so she hunts and fishes, as does most of small town America. But the fact of the matter is, the mainland is nothing like Alaska. In Alaska, you use your guns to shoot “wild-game.” In the mainland guns are used to kill people more and more every year. So this idea of ending the 32 year-old ban on handguns doesn’t exactly fit. You don’t hunt with hand guns, nor do you fish with them. You don’t do anything but shoot someone else with it, and the more access people have to handguns whether if its for protection or some other recreational use, it puts more guns in the street and more lives will be taken with each bullet loaded into each gun. Just wait when and if you arrive in D.C. to take office, when you hear on a daily basis of the extremely high crime rate in Washington D.C. - you might change your mind. Palin is a “champion of the right to bear arms” and has been a member of the NRA her whole life. I don’t like the idea that Palin will sway the majority of her decision based off how they would work in Alaska. This is the mainland, we do things different here.

As for health care Palin thinks it must be market and business driven, at least that’s what she said in January. Now, she will probably be puppeted by McCain, so what she says wont matter anyways. This market driven way of getting health care to the American people is only going to raise cost as competition heats up. It should also be known that the McCain campaign will allow you to be denied health insurance based off of pre-existing conditions. Obama will not allow that. What that would do is allow insurance companies to deny people who have diabetes, heart disease or anything they feel will be necessary to provide long term coverage. That is outright disgusting. So the idea that Palin supports a health care system that is going to be more affordable via competition, shows that McCain found a “Yes Man”, or pardon me, a “Yes Woman” to run by his side. The health care conversation goes much deeper then that, but Palin has no idea how to even come up with her own fundamental solution to solving the health care crisis and sticks to general statements that can be maneuvered by the McCain campaign.

Everyone wants to talk about the war, so lets talk. Earlier this month Palin explained that she feels terrorists in Iraq are a bigger threat to the American people. Has she not learned anything by the approval ratings of us being in war and the disappointment of never catching Osama? There were things that needed to be taken care of in Iraq but the ones from Afghanistan are the ones who knocked down the towers and the Pentagon, you know, the reason we went to war in the first place. Palin is so under qualified, she didn’t even have a passport until 2007, where she finally made it to Kuwait to encourage our soldiers. What kind of things did she do to encourage the soldiers? She encouraged big game hunting in Alaska, as if the hunting they were doing already wasn’t enough. Really, that’s not a big deal. Once again, if elected, she will probably be closed out of the meetings involving war involvement anyways.

Before I end this rant, I must be fair and say a couple things that are decent about Ms. Palin. She knows how to deal with energy, even if it isn’t amongst the popular view of how America should go about solving the energy crisis. “Drill baby drill” said Palin. Palin thinks it make no sense to leave our own domestic supply unused and wants to add more pipelines throughout the country. She also introduced the Gas line Inducement Act which would allow for the construction of a 1,715 mile natural gas line and supports capping carbon emissions, all of which I can agree with.

What also seems to be an important factor for the Vice President elected in to office in November is how to deal with education. Palin believes that we have a creator and that there is also many theories of evolution. As a result, creationism and evolution should be taught alongside each in schools across the nation. This is a subject that every American comes across at one point of their lives, so if someone can be strong and push for a policy that allows for discussion on both evolution and creationism - the never ending battle can be put to rest.

So was McCain’s decision of picking Sarah Palin as his running mate a bad decision? “YOU BETCHA!” as Palin would say. In September, before she was selected by McCain, Palin questioned the role of the V.P. Her resume includes being the Governor of Alaska, Mayor of Wasilla,, Miss Congeniality in her statewide beauty pageant in 1984, Miss Wasilla in the local beauty contest, winner of Iron Dog Snowmobile races, and eloped with an Eskimo at the age of 24. Her biggest accomplishment was a sports plex, and dropping the Alaskan sales tax.

At a time of economical struggle with Americans panicking across the nation, it is time to nominate somebody who has had some kind of experience in dealing with the national infrastructure rather then someone who neglected the small town of Wasilla’s infrastructure leaving the town of less then 10,000 people, $22,000,000 in debt. Future President, Barack Obama has had very minimal experience in this field as well, which is why he hired a very experienced Vice Presidential candidate in Joe Biden.

Vote Obama/Biden.